[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4127-4128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       STAND BEHIND OUR VETERANS

  (Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring an 
important concern to my colleagues. Every one of us here has a sacred 
commitment to care for those warriors who are willing to serve us 
overseas, and one of our major concerns is making sure they're employed 
when they return back home.
  What's alarming is the Department of Defense recently issued a change 
in their policy that will undermine our ability to do that. I'm 
referring to the Department of Defense Post-Deployment Mobilization 
Respite Account. This important policy is designed to give our brave 
warriors sufficient time to transition back into the private sector. 
PDMRA, as it's called, is an important tool that gives them that 
opportunity.
  The change by the DOD reduces the number of paid transition days that 
were promised to our men and women after they deploy to the war zone. 
Halfway through, for many of them, their third or fourth deployment, 
DOD is now taking that back when their plans were set this spring when 
they returned home. While they're in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is 
certainly not the right thing to do.
  Every single one of us wants to balance the budget and must focus us 
on that, simply not on the backs of veterans and warriors serving this 
Nation.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in asking the Department of Defense to 
reverse course on this policy, hire our veterans, and keep our moral 
commitment to them.

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